iPhone Gets Those 3rd Party Apps, But Not In the Way Many Wanted/Expected

Steve Jobs may have opened up the iPhone to third party development, but he did so in a way that will undoubtedly tie those developers' hands--no matter how Apple chooses to cast the decision.

As the Apple CEO noted during his WWDC keynote on Monday, the iPhone will only be able to run non-native, Web 2.0-based applications that are developed using the full Safari engine already onboard the phone (which, by the way, Jobs says is the exact same engine that is on OS X and, now, Windows).

That characterization still had a lot of people confused during the actual keynote, so to clarify: these will be Web-only apps that are developed using Safari and only Safari. In other words, these are Web 2.0 apps in the sense that they will all use server-side-only, thin-client style Ajax. That fact was confirmed by Brian Croll, senior director of Mac OS X product marketing at Apple, during a post keynote hands-on session with Leopard.

During his presentation, Jobs described this decision as one that's best for both Apple and the development community--at least for the time being. Such online-only applications will be able to tap into existing native iPhone services, such as making a phone call, sending an e-mail, and displaying a location in Google Maps, he said, and can also be easily distributed over the Internet. Jobs also cited the fact that these applications could be easily updated by simply changing the code on the developer's own server.

"We have been trying to find a solution to expand the capabilities of the iPhone by letting developers write applications for it, and yet keep the iPhone reliable and secure," Jobs explained during the keynote.

"[The Safari engine] gives us tremendous capability, more than has ever been in a mobile device. You can write amazing Web 2.0 and Ajax applications that look exactly, and behave exactly like applications on the iPhone," he continued.

Those arguments not withstanding, Monday's announcement did come as a surprise to many in the industry who were at least expecting an SDK with strict Apple oversight.

Indeed, with the iPhone running a stripped down version of OS X, analysts and developers were increasingly placing their bets on dashboard widgets as the first true outside applications to migrate to the iPhone.

Depending on your perspective--and possibly your profession--this "sweet solution," as Jobs described it, is either incredibly disappointing or particularly shrewd (from a business standpoint).

On the one hand, binding application development to Safari, which the Cupertino company now seems to have big plans for, is yet another way to draw iConverts. While not admitting that this was the primary purpose for building a Windows version of Safari, Croll did agree and that Safari could eventually be an alluring platform for Windows users and developers.

If the Safari browser experience proves pleasurable for these users (note: there are already signs of significant security issues with the beta), that in turn could prompt more interest in developing apps for the browser, especially if it grows in market share. Again, this could redirect these new developers to the iPhone, whose primary platform will be Safari. One statistic that was only briefly mentioned during Jobs' keynote was the fact that Apple now has close to one million Apple developers. That's a 25 percent increase in programmers registered with the company in just one year, and that's huge news for a company that has typically struggled to attract developers.

In one sense, what Apple is doing with the iPhone is a strategy we've seen before, albeit one that's a bit more watered down.

By most accounts, the iPod was moderately successful even before Apple made iTunes available to PC users. But it really took a Windows version of the software for the iconic device to truly become what it is today.

To verify this, one need only look back five years. Apple's iPod had been a huge hit with Mac users since the day it was introduced. Sales in 2002 were doing well, with more than 200,000 units shipped by that point. In fact, the company moved 125,000 iPods alone in the first fiscal quarter of 2002, according to Gartner.

Up until that point, however, iTunes software ran exclusively on the Mac, effectively leaving PC users to marvel over (but not purchase) an iPod of their own.

As we all know, everything changed in 2003 when iTunes came out for the PC. And in a way, Apple seems to be banking (or at least hoping) for a similar set of circumstances to unfold with the iPhone and Safari.

On the other hand, one simply can't ignore the fact that these applications won't have full access to the phone's core capabilities.

Ajax may be great for making Gmail, Google Maps, and Facebook a reality, but without the ability to access and query the iPhone databases from Safari, just how innovative and groundbreaking will these new pieces of software be?

And with all that squandered potential in the form of games and other innovative new applications, we may never truly have that killer app for the iPhone as long as such restricted developer access remains in place.

Mind you, the iPhone is being billed by Jobs & Co. as the "true Internet" in your pocket. We'll have to wait until June 29 to see if that characterization rings true. But if there were any lingering questions as to why Apple dropped the 'Computer' from its name and added 'Inc.' instead, Monday's WWDC cleared matters up nicely.

These days, Apple is increasingly interested in weaving a tapestry of interrelated devices and services. To be sure, it's a gamble, and a lot still needs to be clarified about outside development and the iPhone. But part of why the company is where it is today, is because it took such risks.

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